Road deaths rocket by 3,000 as Thailand set to be named world number one in carnage, say academics

[Peterphuket]

Last week, I was driving on my bike, as I do every morning,  from the opposite direction, on a narrow two-way road in a curve comes a gasolinetruck with trailer.

He could not see anything completely, could you imagine.

And so someone drives a truck with a dagerous substance.

That kind of people must be brainless.

[balo]

55 minutes ago, Airbagwill said:

nd have some of the biggest straightest and "best" roads in the country - now why would that affect the death rates?

Why ? Because speed kills. Bumpy roads and heavy traffic makes you slow down.

[agudbuk]

Why ? Because speed kills. Bumpy roads and heavy traffic makes you slow down.

Not in Thailand.

[lvr181]

2 minutes ago, balo said:

Why ? Because speed kills. Bumpy roads and heavy traffic makes you slow down.

"Why ? Because speed kills"

 

"speed" only increases the severity of the crash! You could still be killed driving within the speed limits. Falling off your push bike and hitting your head on the gutter, for example, without a crash helmet and dying as a result is not really speeding is it?

 

"Speed kills" is an emotive saying beloved of those who do not really understand the application of the word 'speed'. I have raced cars and motorbikes (speeding?) but it did not kill me, obviously.

 

Driving or riding too fast for the conditions may kill you, regardless of your speed. 

 

".... and heavy traffic makes you slow down."

 

Seen many slow motorcyclists in heavy traffic have you? Nah!

[Thaidream]

Speed does kill- I was an accident investigator for 15 years in California and the majority of accidents were as a result of excessive speed and not from any other cause. The same is true of Thailand.

 

Thais drive way too fast on every type of roadway ; every type of weather; and every situation- they ignore all speed limits and even the police if they can. The only way to change the behavior is through a massive public relations program started at school level. I am almost convinced that current drivers are impossible to change- there is not enough police to enforce speed limits and poor driving so there is no consequence for bad driving except death and even that does not slow down the other family members of the deceased.

 

Indeed, some of it is cultural in that Thais are fatalistic- and do not dwell on potential situations and consequences.

[TBWG]

I wonder how much of this increase can be attributed to the fact that the majority of the population have been wearing black for the last year.

 

I personally have seen motorcyclists clad all in black out at night on poorly lit roads on motorbikes with no lights. Not to mention pi**ed pedestrians wandering aimlessly in the middle of the road at all hours. Surely an invite to finish up in hospital at best.

 

Will anything change? not in my lifetime but a good start would be to make sure every vehicle has a number plate and lights which means people are accountable and responsible for their actions, after all what good are CCTV cameras at junctions if the naughty boy has no plates.

 

Just saying.

 

TBWG

 

 

[wabothai]

how will thais ever understand thainess?

[Jim walker]

I thought not long ago the Junta was going to sort all this road carnage out didn't realise they were just going to go straight for the number one global death position, had a feeling they were going to clamp down on bad driving, so more general crap spoken only.  

[Zendo]

I can see only one future with less accidents in Thailand and it might come faster than we think, I am talking about self driving car, because I'll trust more a computer with all his bugs and problems than any Thai Driving on roads. And That will be the best combination because people will be able to chat, to take selfies, to eat or have sex while ine the car.. but Safely !!  Hope for that future to come FAST in LOS^^

 

 

and for the motorbikes.. Honda just make one too which is called  "Honda Riding Assist".

 

Also, instead of buying submarines they might consider building mortobikes airbags localy to reduce the cost and protect really the drivers, but even for Free, most of people here won't use it, too hot, not free anymore, boring, etc... And Accident could not happen to them..only to others, relatives, familly, neighbours: YES but not for them.. specially when wearing amulets: INVICIBLE !

 

 

 

 

[transam]

1 hour ago, Airbagwill said:

Totally out of context and shows you don't understand the concepts behind improving road safety in Thailand.

 

Corruption is endemic throughout Thai life from the lowest to the highest and is a factor in getting anything done but stopping the police from taking a couple of hundred baht on imagined infringements will achieve next to nothing.

 

Reviewing how where and when police set up road blocks could save a few lives though.

Think you didn't read what l said.....

[Genghis Khant]

And if you are not killed in a RTA the chances of a maniac with a machete leaping from a vehicle and attacking you are quite high on the list. Very persistent people 555

[riclag]

Unfortunately farang's are affected  by this irresponsible driving and these school yard rules.

I cringe when the motorbikes eek out from a soi while taking a left and don't look.

How often does it occur that   these cars and motorbikes travel on the wrong side of the road to avoid going to a u-turn or to lazy to join the correct side of travel flow.

What about the overloaded trucks with their content's reaching to the sky.

 

[KBsinter]

19 hours ago, Just1Voice said:

Way to go, Thailand!  I knew you could be #1 if you tried hard enough.  Now, can you hold on to the position? 

 

 

Of course they can, they have been #1 for years ( people who die in hospital they don:t 

count) ...............

 

 

 

[balo]

1 hour ago, lvr181 said:

.... and heavy traffic makes you slow down."

 

Seen many slow motorcyclists in heavy traffic have you? Nah!

Obviously I'm talking about cars, after 6 years driving my car in Thailand . "speed kills" is not something to joke about, there's a big difference driving at 50 kph and 140 . 

[Djw6]

I can understand Chonburi being high up on the list after living here for many years, but what would make Rayong No. 1 - winding roads, no enforcement, rich kids on bikes????

[DavisH]

4 hours ago, KiChakayan said:

Agree, before one can understand a roundabout one must understand what lanes are for. Not there yet. Too complicated for the Thai brain. I see, almost daily in Buriram, people doing U turns at the entrance of the Elephant roundabout. Don't think that want to save 300 meters,  they just can't see then point of doing it right.

99% of Thai drivers never give way to traffic already on a roundabout. They treat it like an intersection. They are a disaster.

[Nemises]

Tinted windscreens....Highly illegal elsewhere, but 60% tint allowed in Thailand. What could possibly go wrong when drivers loose 60% visibility on cloudy days or after sunset?

 

[Shaunduhpostman]

In general, most Thais seem to feel that being safety conscious or even slightly this side away from reckless is way too uptight and really a very negative, complaining, bad luck inviting, boring stance to life. It is not only car accidents that are permanently destroying people's health, maiming and killing them, any outsider can after a week of experience here come up with a laundry list of areas where people in this country breezily go about endangering themselves and others.

 

If they wanted to change, which they don't, It would take generations to undo the cultural programming, and early adopters of a common sense approach to life would have to sacrifice their lives and be ostracized from society. Its not gonna happen.

 

When Thailand goes nuclear power that will probably be the end of them as a people for the most part. The culture and the people cannot and will not do what it takes to  properly handle that level of responsibility. Cars and mobile devices are one level of technology but the nuclear technologies ask something they are not up to, we'll just see the plants mismanaged and within years melting down, waste dumped wherever after management pockets the money earmarked for proper disposal.

[Airbagwill]

4 hours ago, balo said:

Why ? Because speed kills. Bumpy roads and heavy traffic makes you slow down.

it was rhetorical but yes - the new roads the Thai authorities are building are wide straight and fast and haven't been built in Europe for decades as all they do is encourage bad driving habits - speeding which inevitably makes accident more serious and also the boredom and apparent unrelenting monotony males concentrations lapse and the truth is that most accidents are NOT caused by bad driviers but by momentary lapses by perfectly ordinary people.

[Airbagwill]

2 hours ago, Gregster said:

Tinted windscreens....Highly illegal elsewhere, but 60% tint allowed in Thailand. What could possibly go wrong when drivers loose 60% visibility on cloudy days or after sunset?

 

one factor amongst hundreds that build up to a perfect storm.

Losing detail in visibility especially at dusk is highly dangerous, but what people overlook is that in countries where tinted windows are limited, drivers=can see easch other - this allows them to communicate with each other - there's no point in waving someone on if they can see you - or flashing the V sign.

 

any heat reduction on tints is largely a myth too as the heat is radiated through the window and almost all glass on cars filters UV.

[Airbagwill]

5 hours ago, Happyman58 said:

Most accidents happen in Bangkok when traffic is nearly at a standstill and not moving till one Thai driver loses patience and thinks me me me first and it causes an accident

again rhetorical but thew amount of deaths in BKK show that vulnerable road users are at risk even in virtually stionary traffic.

[Airbagwill]

1 hour ago, Shaunduhpostman said:

In general, most Thais seem to feel that being safety conscious or even slightly this side away from reckless is way too uptight and really a very negative, complaining, bad luck inviting, boring stance to life. It is not only car accidents that are permanently destroying people's health, maiming and killing them, any outsider can after a week of experience here come up with a laundry list of areas where people in this country breezily go about endangering themselves and others.

 

If they wanted to change, which they don't, It would take generations to undo the cultural programming, and early adopters of a common sense approach to life would have to sacrifice their lives and be ostracized from society. Its not gonna happen.

 

When Thailand goes nuclear power that will probably be the end of them as a people for the most part. The culture and the people cannot and will not do what it takes to  properly handle that level of responsibility. Cars and mobile devices are one level of technology but the nuclear technologies ask something they are not up to, we'll just see the plants mismanaged and within years melting down, waste dumped wherever after management pockets the money earmarked for proper disposal.

Ill-informed generalisations about the Thai population will never address the situation as they are so wide of the mark.

[chickenslegs]

3 minutes ago, Airbagwill said:

the truth is that most accidents are NOT caused by bad driviers but by momentary lapses by perfectly ordinary people.

That is a great observation.

 

Any idiot can become proficient at pointing the vehicle in the correct direction, making it go forwards, making it stop, even making it go backwards.

 

Concentration and awareness are essential for safer driving.

 

 

[Airbagwill]

3 hours ago, DavisH said:

99% of Thai drivers never give way to traffic already on a roundabout. They treat it like an intersection. They are a disaster.

I presume by 99% you actually mean “most of” - rather than a precise figure - I doubt  you could actually support either claim. Part of the problem of roundabouts with foreigners is that they too have no idea what is expected and the design of roundabouts in Thailand gives little clue.

 

Here though, you are actually talking about one of the 5 "Es" not about driving ability. I have been involved in designing roundabouts in the UK, and believe me even in a country that has had roundabouts for centuries, there is a massive number of people who can't navigate one   - they ahve to be shown by design. Unfortunately the traffic engineers in Thailand don't know the first thing about traffic engineering - in fact I'm convinced there aren't any here at all.     

one of the problems with a roundabout in Thailand - apart from the fact there is no traffic engineering, is that the rule of the road is priority from the left (a lot of foreigners don't know that) - but on a roundabout, the highway code is reversed. So at a roundabout, firstly is has to be identified as such - and this is not obvious given the layout of many roundabouts - and then the driver has to be aware of a switch from the "natural" priorities he/she learn from the highway code. - by this time they have often decided it's a "normal" junction and are most of the way through it.

 

[Vintage]

It is the arrogant impatient me first attitude while hiding behind tinted windows that will ensure nothing ever changes.


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[Airbagwill]

23 minutes ago, chickenslegs said:

That is a great observation.

 

Any idiot can become proficient at pointing the vehicle in the correct direction, making it go forwards, making it stop, even making it go backwards.

 

Concentration and awareness are essential for safer driving.

 

 

there is a perception by many on the thread that because they "can drive" they must be experts on road safety.

[Airbagwill]

6 minutes ago, Vintage said:

It is the arrogant impatient me first attitude while hiding behind tinted windows that will ensure nothing ever changes.


Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect

how can you tell if you can't see through the window?

[Scott]

A post has been reported and removed.  

[observer90210]

The roads are now getting a bit too Fast & Furious v.4.0....time to call in Mad Max and Smokey the Bear to clear the case once and for all !!!!

[Rc2702]

The worst ones for me are:

 

Impatient u turners who rather than waiting there turn will block your view and cut in on your outside.

 

Impatient shoppers who just to be first out will go out the entrance gate just to be ahead of you and then block your view of oncoming traffic as you try to turn onto rd.